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Keep Your Lamp Burning
"Keep Your Lamp Burning" is a mini-story that is part of the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series. The Story It is a Sunday morning in the Smurfette Village Chapel, where the Smurfs and Smurfettes have gathered to hear Pastor Nevin's sermon for the day. "Today's sermon, my friends, smurfs from the Gospel of Matthew," he began. "After the Lord Jesus had spoken to His disciples about when the end of the age was going to smurf, He smurfed to them a parable, which smurfs like this: 'Then the kingdom of Heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all nodded and fell asleep. "'And at midnight there was a cry: "Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!" Then all those virgins arose and prepared their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out." But the wise answered, saying, "No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves." And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" But he answered and said, "Truly, I say to you, I do not know you." Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man comes.' "My fellow Smurfs, this is a parable about the Lord's coming, and as the ten virgins were smurfs lamps that should burn until the bridegroom comes to smurf them to the wedding feast, we also must continue to smurf the Light of the World in our earthly lamps until Jesus, our Bridegroom, comes to smurf us into heaven, whether that would be at the Rapture or upon our earthly deaths. We must continue to supply ourselves with the oil of the Holy Spirit that will keep our lamps shining until that glorious day smurfs. Do not be like the five foolish virgins that did not smurf any oil with their lamps, for at the day and hour that we think not, the Bridegroom will call, and those who are ready will smurf up to meet our Lord in the air, and thus shall be forever with Him. And those that linger to smurf oil for themselves during that time will find themselves smurfed out of the wedding feast. And the Lord will tell them that He doesn't know them. "I know some of you are asking, 'Why didn't the five wise virgins share their oil with the five foolish virgins?' Well, as it smurfs in the parable itself, the wise virgins didn't know whether they would have enough for both them and the other five virgins. That may make the wise virgins seem selfish to our thinking, but they smurfed the wisdom of being prepared for how long it would smurf for the Bridegroom to come and smurf them into the wedding feast. The Lord wants all who smurf upon His Name to be equally prepared, for He says that His coming will be like a thief in the night, and if the housesmurfer knew at what time the thief would come, he would have prepared himself so that his house would not be smurfed into. And although the parable says all ten of them slept, the Lord wants us to be watchful at all times, lest when He comes, He may find us sleeping spiritually, and the Day will smurf upon us like a thief in the night. "In ancient Israel, God had smurfed this command to Aaron the high priest and his family line in the book of Leviticus: 'Command Aaron and his sons, saying, "This is the law of the burnt offering: The burnt offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it. And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen trousers he shall put on his flesh, and take up the ashes of the burnt offering which the fire has consumed on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. And he shall take off his garments, put on other garments, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings with smoke. The fire shall continually be burning on the altar; it shall never go out."' "Fellow Smurfs, if God thought it be so important for the priestly line of Aaron to keep the fire burning on the altar, how much more important should it be that we keep our fires burning for the Lord until He returns? The altar in our case is within these temples of flesh, where the Holy Spirit of God resides. Paul the apostle warned the Thessalonians in his first epistle in them to not quench the Spirit, for without the Spirit of God within us we do not belong to Him. Paul smurfs the Ephesians that the Holy Spirit is our guarantee that we belong to Him and that we are smurfed for the day of redemption, which is when we will receive our full inheritance as His sons and daughters adopted into His eternal family. "So as I close this sermon, I will ask you: how many are prepared for the time when the Lord will smurf from heaven to receive His own unto Himself? You do not need to raise your hand, but if you feel that you need to smurf your life right with the Lord before that time, I will smurf with you to make sure that you smurf your claim with the Lord and that He will smurf His home with you." Empath watched as only a few Smurfs and Smurfettes came up to the altar in the front of the chapel and knelt down in prayer, with tears in their eyes and broken hearts as they felt the pricking of their conscience bringing them to humility before the Almighty. Pastor Nevin went to each of them and prayed over them as the worship team played their music. After the service had ended, Empath went to meet with Pastor Nevin in private. "So what do you think of today's sermon, my fellow Empath?" Nevin asked. "You seem to be very passionate for all the Smurfs and Smurfettes to give their lives to the Almighty, Tapper," Empath said. "But this smurf does not seem to fully understand what the parable is asking for this smurf to do." "The Lord will smurf you complete understanding of the parable, if you so desire to smurf your life to Him so you can become His," Pastor Nevin said. "This smurf doesn't feel like this smurf is ready for that yet," Empath said, sounding a bit uneasy. "I will continue to pray for you, my friend, but all I can smurf you is do not delay in asking for Him to be your Lord and Savior, for there will smurf a time when you will be smurfed out from His presence forever," Pastor Nevin said a bit sternly. Category:Tapper's Bible lessons Category:Empath the Luckiest Smurf stories Category:Mini-stories Category:VicGeorge2K9's articles